A Healthier Halloween Preschool Party

Hailey started going to a mom’s morning out program twice a week when she was two years old. It was a great little 9-12 program, that just served a mid-morning snack; no lunch. I thought this was great until Hailey began telling me about some of the snacks that were served. Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, OREOS. Huh, say what? For snack?

On top of that, it seemed like every week was someone’s birthday, which meant cupcakes, cookies and extra candy to take home.

Plus, teachers used M&Ms to reward good behavior.

See the pattern?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind a little candy fun on Halloween, but when it extends all month long, it’s a little too much in my book. With Halloween around the corner, I’m hoping to pull back a bit on the ALL THE SUGAR theme that is so often associated with the month of October. To do this, I’m partnering up with the wonderful folks over at Bitsy’s Brainfood to share adorable ways to keep all the fun and magic of Halloween parties while leaving the junk-filled faux-food behind!

Step 1: Focus on the Fun Factor! Kids, especially preschoolers, are at incredible ages to take advantage of magic of the holidays. Hailey, age 4, is all about Halloween and the spooky fun that comes with it.

A great ways to engage little minds with cost-effective fun is to create a sensory mystery box station.

Older kids will squeal with delight when they stick their hands in mystery boxes to squeeze monster brains. Younger children may do better getting to see what they are touching first.

Either way, it provides a really fun activity that will leave all ages, adults included, squealing and giggling as they guess what each monster mystery is made of.

For the preschool crowd, crafts are still a big hit. I know this because I have multiple large containers filled with art projects from Hailey’s first 4 years of life (how I am trying to organize my storage space is an entirely different post). But take advantage of this by helping kids get crafty.

Decorating masks, either store-bought or cut from paper plates, can provide an opportunity for coloring and pretend play afterwards.

I’m not one of those moms that can create adorable, elaborate lunch scenes with butterflies and cut out shapes on the regular. However, for holidays I’m a bit more willing to put in some extra effort, especially if they aren’t too complex. Hailey loves these simple mini-pumpkins.

And these witches brooms, made from a pretzel stick and string cheese, are easy and delightful.

Step 3: Choose Smarter Tricks and Treats. It’s easy to default to candy at Halloween time. I get it. The aisles at Target are overflowing with it, but if you look closer you will also see some new, healthier (and still delicious!) choices emerging.

Bitsy’s Brainfood, the awesome company behind these whole grain cookies made proudly with organic fruits and vegetables, just launched a spooky-snacks multi-pack of some of their most tasty varieties, orange chocolate beet and sweet potato oatmeal raisin.

They are perfect for handing out to trick-or-treaters or for school parties because they are made is a super-safe NUT-FREE facility, which is so important in today’s world.

Brightly-colored packages and the signature letter-shaped cookies make Bitsy’s Brainfood Cookies a huge hit, proven by the way my girls gobble them down, even Kaitlyn (16 months) who is my more particular eater. We eat these on the regular and love them even more with their Halloween-themed packages! You can learn more about the two mom’s that created Bitsy’s here or find them on instagram, facebook or twitter.

Along with the treats, kids love tricks too, and are quite easy to please with simple and affordable Halloween fun, like squishy, sticky eyeballs!

Another great hand out are glow sticks. Not only to kids get the biggest kick out of them, they are great for them to wear of Halloween night to make them easier to track!

Even simple touches like orange and black straws can make a party come alive with magic for kids.

By combining the themed crafts, snacks and spooky tricks and treats, you can make your child’s Halloween celebration explode with delight!

About Brittany Dixon

Brittany Dixon is a former health coach turned stay at home mom of two girls. Her goal is to share her passion for healthy eating and natural living alongside the daily challenges and triumphs of motherhood. She is excited to step into the world of homeschooling and continue to share her life through recipes, anecdotes and future travels with her family.

Those witches brooms are the cutest things ever! I’m definitely making those this year. No one wants to be the house that gives out fruit on Halloween (I’m still young enough to remember THAT house in the neighborhood…and how we avoided it!). But we loved one house that gave away stickers and popcorn balls. A little sugar is OK in my book!

Decorating the house for Halloween has been more fun the last few years. I used to decorate only for fall and now the kids have convinced me to decorate specifically for Halloween. It gets everyone really excited.

We also always get our costumes picked out and ready in advance and we love getting dressed up.

At our neighborhood Halloween party, as you know, we no longer offer juice. Only bottled water. Moving toward a healthier ways….

My daughter’s second grade class celebrates Halloween with a mad scientist day. What a great idea!! And their grade level doesn’t allow class treats to be brought in anymore! The birthday kiddos gets treated like gold and gets one special treat from the teacher. Yay! Win!

This year I’d love to try out those snacks you mentioned which are individually wrapped and healthy. Also, I recently saw popcorn packed inside clear gloves and tied at the top with a ribbon!

And not that this is a solution, but more about passing the buck, but lots of people donate their excess halloween candy to the troops in order to get it out of their house.

We trick or treat first then hand back out the candy the girls just received. There is always enough stickers or little toys so they each get something. They’ve never tasted candy so they don’t have any temptation to eat it. They love handing it back out actually. I do let them pick one candy and I recreate it at home for them to eat a few pieces after we get home. Last year I made almond joys with all organic whole ingredients. This year were trying snickers.

The witches’ brooms and pumpkins are adorable and so creative! The funny thing is, it starts so young and never ends. In high school, snack at student council meetings was cookies and Pringles. Even in law school, the free lunch at events was always pizza, and student groups bribed passersby to check out their tables with free candy and Oreos/Chips Ahoy. I can’t eat that stuff because of Celiacs, but it amazed me how many people could avoid the Freshman 10 or Law School 10 pound weight gain just by not indulging in every single mass produced pizza slice or cookie they were offered.Alyssa @ Renaissancerunnergirl recently posted..On Being an INFJ

I think from now having a child with a milk/soy intolerance I’ve become more aware of how many children have intolerances and allergies. So this year for Halloween we are going to put a Teal pumpkin outside our door (to note we have allergy friendly treats) and handout little “fun packs” – I’m thinking little coloring books, stickers, mini-puzzle etc.!

We have done yogurt raisins and pretzels bags, but I really like the glow stick idea! Now having a little one with food allergies, I’m much more conscious of all of the food allergies out there and try to pick something everyone can enjoy. I think these Bitsy’s Brainfood snacks sound like a great idea!Brittany K recently posted..Teacher Gifts

We hand out stickers, spider rings & popcorn packs in addition to candy, it always surprises me how many kids pick the non candy items. And of course we walk to go trick or treating and then when we’re back at home the kids can pick 2 pieces of candy to eat.

Living “out of town” we don’t get a lot of trick or treaters so I tend to go overboard for the ones that make the trip out to see us. I make special treat bags filled with fun things like play doh, colored paper & art supplies, notebooks, crayons, markers and other small dollar store items I find. And I always fill a plastic cup or bowl with edible items like decorated rice krispie treats, homemade trail mix and granola. The kids LOVE it and mom’s do too!

We aren’t allowed to bring homemade trips to day care/preschool, so I had actually planned on picking up the individual serving size Bitsy’s to hand out! I love having healthier options like Bitsy’s or Annie’s or even fruit pouches rather than all of the candy.Heather recently posted..Science Museum: Lost in Space

You have found my soapbox! It feels like every day! M&M’s for letter M, froot loops for letter F. Really?

Fortunately, the teacher knows I’m a little nuts about nutrition and lets me contribute two things to the class Halloween party. The orange pumpkins with celery were what my almost 4 year old, Camille, picked out.

I really struggle with this- I pack my son with healthy snacks, yet they still feed him artificial “junk” at daycare. I work in a school and will absolutely make those pumpkins and broom sticks. Thanks! I’d also love to win the gift certificate. I’d eat those cookies myself 🙂

My son’s preschool does birthday celebrations and encourages the parents to bring something healthy. My son’s 3rd birthday, sniff, is on the 28th, so I plan to do a Halloween theme. The clementine pumpkins and brooms will be a huge hit!

We usually let the kids pick one “treat” from their loot after dinner following Halloween and then we put treats up in the cupboard. They remember for about a week and then they totally forget/lose interest in the candy. Out of sight, out of mind!

My daughter is only 16 months and we will introduce many of these great ideas so she can learn it’s not all about candy. We are handing out goodie bags with little puzzles, mini coloring books, and spin tops.

I was a class mom for years (in charge of organizing the holiday parties). By far the most favorite games were simple little relay races I put together (usually pitting the boys against the girls). These didn’t involve running as parties were inside. I often looked to the Minute to Win It games for inspiration.

I work at a high-needs school and most of my students are low-income. They don’t get many healthy choices at home so I like exposing them to healthy food that still tastes good (string cheese, clementines, etc.) even at our holiday celebrations. I’d love to introduce them to Bitsy’s for our Halloween party!

We plan to make Halloween a bit more healthy by picking two Autumn foods and making a bunch of snacks using pumpkin and apples. So, we are going to make pumpkin bread, pumpkin oatmeal, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin protein balls, pumpkin & peanut butter sandwiches, and pumpkin trail mix (using the seeds). Then, we are going to use the apples to do “dunking” with, apple slices dipped in pumpkin PB dip, apple in green salads, etc.

I think there are certain times of the year when indulgences are just fine and Halloween is one them! I did learn over the years though that candy binges dont feel so great so now i stick to a few of my favorites.

Love this post! Thanks for all the great ideas 🙂 I usually host my kids school parties and we try to go for the most healthy options. I am definitely going to use the oranges as pumpkins idea this year….too cute !

Last year I had candy and bubbles to pass out so there was a non-food/non-sugar option. But we let Claire keep 5 pieces of the candy she got and then got rid of the rest. This year I may go all non-food for trick or treaters as I would LOVE to see the tradition slowly begin to change!

As a kindergarten teacher (and mama,) I definitely appreciate the idea of healthy party options! For our Halloween party, I like to focus more on fun games and crafts rather than candy and treats. We also do a few healthier snacks like cut up veggies and cheese sticks. I love the witches broom idea; I think I’ll add that to our menu this year! 🙂

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Hi, I’m Brittany! I'm a former health coach turned homeschooling, work-at-home mom to two energetic girls. A Healthy Slice of Life is a place where I share how we live our best lives through the lens of food, family, and travel while hopefully inspiring you to do the same. I'm so glad you're here!

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